THE 11th G20 Summit will be held in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province between Sept. 4 and 5.

Hangzhou, famous for its West Lake and many other scenic spots, will become the first Chinese city to host a G20 Summit, which is a global economic and financial cooperation forum that gathers leaders of the world’s major developed and emerging nations, representing about 85 percent of the global GDP and two-thirds of the world’s population.

Besides the G20 major economies, the Hangzhou meeting this year will have more developing non-G20 countries in attendance than any previous one. Some countries, such as Laos, Kazakhstan, Egypt and Chad, have confirmed that they will take part in the summit. Leaders or representatives of seven major international organizations, namely, the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, International Labor Organization, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Financial Stability Board, will also join the summit.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, President Xi Jinping will deliver a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the summit. His tight schedule during the two-day event also includes presiding over more than 10 major activities.

Since 2013, President Xi has attended three G20 gatherings, separately in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, Australian city of Brisbane and Turkish city of Antalya. But the Hangzhou summit this year is surely of special significance to China.

The summit will be a good opportunity for China to tell the world of its strong determination to be a responsible and influential nation. It will also work as a wonderful showcase of China’s contributions as well as solutions for the world economy.

The G20 Summit was initiated in 2008 in the wake of the financial crisis that year. Since then, leaders attending the summits have passed many proposals and action plans. Still, problems remain for the global economy. This time, China hopes to transform the meeting from a case-by-case, solution-seeking summit into a long-term institutional mechanism for ongoing debates.

Yi Gang, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, told a news conference recently that China has introduced “green finance” as a G20 agenda topic for Hangzhou. Such a move shows China’s increasing recognition of lowering financing costs and putting a high priority on environmental protection and sustainable development.

During the two-day gathering, the annual informal leaders’ meeting of BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — will be held on the sidelines of the summit. The five emerging countries have distinguished themselves in recent years through their large-scale, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and international affairs.

Meanwhile, the event will also offer an ideal opportunity for the newly appointed British prime minister, Theresa May, to meet with Chinese senior officials and heal bilateral relations. After May took office as prime minister in July this year, the United Kingdom abruptly postponed a final decision on a £18 billion (US$23 billion) project to build a nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point in Southwest England. China plans to cover one-third of the total construction cost, with the understanding that the U.K.’s next nuclear project will be Chinese designed and built.

In modern society, much of what goes on in the world is the result of enduring hours of negotiation and compromise by senior leaders in back rooms. Despite the fact that China does not want to highlight some sensitive issues such as the THAAD deployment and tensions in South and East China Seas during the summit, these may also be hot topics and may be very difficult to avoid in the meeting.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily and guest professor of Shenzhen University with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)